ASRock X370 Taichi (AMD AM4)

[cadaveca]

With AMD's new processors out now, ASRock has taken their Taichi design and applied it to AMD's X370 chipset. Ready for SLI and dual M.2 drives along with a huge list of other features, ASRock's X370 Taichi motherboard is definitely ready to bring a calming moment to your AMD Ryzen experience.

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[dj-electric]

I was really convinced this will cost 300+$

 

[entropic]

Unfortunately in the EU the board retails for 260 euro or more and while still a solid choice thats quite a bit of premium added just by crossing the ocean, also availability sucks

 

[Lightofhonor]

Your AIDA64 scores are a little on the low side. My 2933 kit is outperforming you. ASRock Killer board.

Still, wish I had been able to get a Taichi. Decided too late that I wanted it :-/ Oh well, Killer SLI/ac is still really good.

 

[xkm1948]

I was like "meh" all the way until I read it is $200. Holy cow that is a great value!!

 

[cadaveca]

Your AIDA64 scores are a little on the low side. My 2933 kit is outperforming you. ASRock Killer board.

Still, wish I had been able to get a Taichi. Decided too late that I wanted it :-/ Oh well, Killer SLI/ac is still really good.

ASRock has actually released several BIOSes for this board since the one this was tested on so it might have improved; I'll be taking an updated look in the near future as AMD pumps out the AGESA updates.

I was like "meh" all the way until I read it is $200. Holy cow that is a great value!!

That's what sealed the deal for me.

 

[newtekie1]

Just out of curiosity, what wireless card are they using on this board?

 

[Naito]

I'll be taking an updated look in the near future as AMD pumps out the AGESA updates.

Looking forward to it.

 

[Aretak]

Just out of curiosity, what wireless card are they using on this board?

It's an Intel 3168NGW.

 

[Rivage]

Simply the best AM4 board.
Tweaktown guy said the same.

Unfortunately in the EU the board retails for 260 euro or more and while still a solid choice thats quite a bit of premium added just by crossing the ocean, also availability sucks

I can buy it for 228 eur, and that's ok price to me.

 

[Black Flag]

I don't like the color.

Too bad Gigabyte not manufactures motherboards with blue pcb anymore.

 

[biffzinker]

I don't like the color.

So you stare at the motherboard? Or do you install it irregardless of a side panel window, and forget about it? It has blue LEDs on board so there's the missing blue.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Using this board for my friends workstation with a 1700x, 32gb ram at 2400, and a Quadro P5000. This board is so good it has been out of stock at newegg for a couple weeks now.

We are waiting for it to be in stock again till we order.

 

[notb]

The board is in fact very impressive. IMO clearly the best AM4 we've seen. Still, the 10.0 score is surprising (at best). :/

Honestly, this board has pretty much the same functionality as the Z270 variant (differences mostly stemming from the chipset - in favor of Intel) and the latter, while being a very solid choice, isn't really a star in the Kaby Lake world. This makes me wonder just how much of the perfect score is really about this board and how much is about the poor AM4 choice we have now.
We'll most likely see better AM4 motherboards and you'll be out of scale then.

Also, you've reviewed the X99 variant a few months ago (score 9.7), which you didn't include in the charts. Why? It would be fairly interesting to see just how this board compares to a last year design that ASRock positioned in the same segment.

Assuming you wanted to limit the number of mobos included, the choice is fairly weird as well. In the X99 Taichi review there are better models included for both X99 and Z170.
I'm far from such ideas, but at some point an Intel fanboy will appear and notice that this mobo would not shine as much in a different company, and it could be harder to justify a score you've given it.

 

[Athlonite]

So what exactly is the difference between this the Taichi and the Gaming Professional apart from slightly different VRM/Chipset heat sinks they've both got the same components onboard

 

[cadaveca]

Assuming you wanted to limit the number of mobos included, the choice is fairly weird as well. In the X99 Taichi review there are better models included for both X99 and Z170.
I'm far from such ideas, but at some point an Intel fanboy will appear and notice that this mobo would not shine as much in a different company, and it could be harder to justify a score you've given it.

Those are literally the boards tested in chronological order. It is very rare that I re-test a board for a future review since I go through so many. There was no thought or choice in the boards listed other than those are the ones that I have tested with these tests specifically, and with this set of hardware. As time progresses, the benchmarks list different boards because that's what I have in my possession.

My scores don't necessarily reflect how one board performs vs any other, either. Each board has an end user segment it targets ,and how well it meet that target plays a role in the scoring as well. In regards to the two Taichi boards, I do feel this is a better version of the product vs the X99 version, since the thematic design suits the feature base far better with Ryzen than it does for Intel's X99 Express. There are no features left out or not used in this board, but with X99, you tend to have lots of left-over PCIe functionality, and part of that is because those CPUs have varying PCIe connectivity. You don't need to have those concerns with AMD's platform currently. I do believe that there can be a bit of elegance in the engineering used to make the most of what a platform offers, and the X370 Taichi does that far better (in my opinion) than the X99 Taichi.


You know, while motherboards are the base of any PC build, they are all rather generic, and there is a huge level of part-equality across the board. Objectifying those differences in design isn't an easy task!

So what exactly is the difference between this the Taichi and the Gaming Professional apart from slightly different VRM/Chipset heat sinks they've both got the same components onboard

Software package and BOIS layout will differ, and there might bee some minor differences like USB controllers and LAN bits. I haven't taken a hard look at that board specifically, but do have the X370 GAMING K4 in the stack of boards I'm working through.

 

[Mistral]

Can anyone confirm if the LED controls on the Chi are compatible with AURA-ready cases like the Enthoo EVOLV?

 

[LTUGamer]

The first 10,0 evaluation for motherboard ever in TPU. AsRock marketing guys could talk a lot about it

 

[Relayer]

As far as the audio section. Did you actually listen to it? I'm curious if it can drive high impedance headphones or not. Can someone connect a set of HD600's (or even HD800) to it and drive them well without any additional headphone amp? High impedance planer models?

 

[darklm]

sorry, but is the Hydro H100 compatible with this board??? do i need an special bracket? i tought i need to put my H100 to rest since my i5 ivy died

 

[LogitechFan]

Can anyone confirm if the LED controls on the Chi are compatible with AURA-ready cases like the Enthoo EVOLV?

Same question. On the Z270 version of Chi it says they are AURA, plain and simple (unless ASRock AURA RGB LED is different from Asus Aura). But AM4 version is ASRock RGB LED, whatever that means...

Also, if I run 2xM2 in raid 0/1 on this one I assume it will slow the top Ultra slot down to 20?

PS. Just noticed the Z270 has 3xM.2 @ Ultra. So basically 10/10 in the AM4 world is like a 7.5/10 in the Z270 world. Ok...

 

[cadaveca]

As far as the audio section. Did you actually listen to it? I'm curious if it can drive high impedance headphones or not. Can someone connect a set of HD600's (or even HD800) to it and drive them well without any additional headphone amp? High impedance planer models?

I have PC350SE, but that's not exactly the same thing. I think you are still better off with external DAC for these sorts of headphones, maybe even add-on sound card. The PCI-E slots are configured well for it...

sorry, but is the Hydro H100 compatible with this board??? do i need an special bracket? i tought i need to put my H100 to rest since my i5 ivy died

No special bracket; just the hardware it comes with. You can see it in pictures in the review...

Same question. On the Z270 version of Chi it says they are AURA, plain and simple. But AM4 version is kinda unclear about it.

Also, if I run 2xM2 in raid 0/1 on this one I assume it will slow the top Ultra slot down to 20?

Not sure how the RAID would work, but you'd probably be better off sticking a slot-in PCI-E 3.0 M.2 board for RAID purposes.

Not sure on the LED thing; there are different types of 50/50 LEDs, different voltages; that should be the only compatibility issue, AFAIK.

 

[notb]

Same question. On the Z270 version of Chi it says they are AURA, plain and simple (unless ASRock AURA RGB LED is different from Asus Aura). But AM4 version is ASRock RGB LED, whatever that means...

Also, if I run 2xM2 in raid 0/1 on this one I assume it will slow the top Ultra slot down to 20?

PS. Just noticed the Z270 has 3xM.2 @ Ultra. So basically 10/10 in the AM4 world is like a 7.5/10 in the Z270 world. Ok...

As cadaveca has said earlier: "My scores don't necessarily reflect how one board performs vs any other, either."
So on one hand, X370 Taichi has a lot of very useful features, is well designed, looks OK and so on. It's hard to find a fault, if you're just looking at this single board - hence the perfect score (and the word "perfect" all over the text).

But there clearly are some more appealing motherboards out there: with better cooling, better OC abilities, better disk performance, better fps in games, better power consumption, better circuits etc.
And even if they're all for Intel CPUs, should it not be taken into account? AM4 is a new platform and more polished stuff is coming soon. How will it be rated if we got a "perfect AM4 board" a month after release?

And if the score doesn't reflect how a device "performs vs any other", why compare at all in the review? Why is there a "sort by rating" option on TPU?
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/?category=Motherboards&manufacturer=&pp=25&order=score
So is this ASRock better than ASUS Maximus VIII? Is it not? Why?

If scores shouldn't be compared, why are they so precise? Why not a simple 5-star system?

Giving a 10.0 was a big risk. Like you, I was instantly pushed back by the poor M.2 situation. In the Kaby Lake generation, a 2x 32 Gbit/s in ATX boards got fairly pedestrian - it's seen in many mid-range models.
But then again: this is cadaveca's approach and he can evaluate according to his views and knowledge. That's the whole point of being a reviewer.
Other than the final score, the review itself is pretty good.

 

[IRQ Conflict]

310 beaver pelts for this board in Canada.

 

[LogitechFan]

Giving a 10.0 was a big risk. Like you, I was instantly pushed back by the poor M.2 situation. In the Kaby Lake generation, a 2x 32 Gbit/s in ATX boards got fairly pedestrian - it's seen in many mid-range models.

Heck, Z270i Strix is mini-itx and has 2xM.2 Ultra slots. With AM4... I can't even get an itx...

310 beaver pelts for this board in Canada.

I usually pay with gold sand and toothpicks here (when running out of fresh scalps, of course).